Shadows of the Night
by H20loo
Summary: A continuation of the Dystopian Utopia universe. Life for the most part is peaceful for Elsa and Anna, but some shadows always remain. Elsa finds out that some come back when you least expect it.


A/N: I was in a contemplative mood, and this was the result. I hope everyone likes it, and please let me know what you think.

Shadows of the Night

Elsa sat up, jolted from her slumber by an unknown sensation, and she glanced around as an unfamiliar landscape surrounded her. After a moment's thought, Elsa realized that a pervading cold had awakened her, a strange thing in and of itself beyond even the strange environment that she found herself in. With her powers, the cold simply didn't bother her, and it was odd that she felt it. It was even odder considering that she should have been in her house in Arendelle, which was always kept warm for her wife and their one little girl that did not have ice and snow powers. Arntine, their youngest, couldn't control the ice and snow like her sisters. _But_ , it was discovered, she could control _people_ with her voice, a trait she had inherited from Anna's mother, a Siren named Ariel. Lost in her thoughts in spite of her peculiar surroundings, Elsa smiled at the irony. The daughter named for the great-grandmother that wielded ice and snow had Siren powers, and the one named for the grandmother that had been a Siren wielded ice and snow.

The cold continued to encroach, however, and it snapped Elsa out of her thoughts. She stood up slowly, and simply stood for a few minutes trying to figure out where she was. Wherever it was, it was winter; the bare trees gathered into bleak copses that formed a desolate forest. Not having any better alternative, Elsa turned a full circle before picking a random direction in which to walk, hoping her feet would take her back to her family, or at the very least, to some answers.

Minutes of walking yielded nothing but trees, but at last, Elsa could see a pattern of light that signified a clearing. Suddenly hopeful, Elsa quickened her pace towards this light, only to stop in shock when she finally emerged into the clearing. In front of her lay thousands of her ice statues, but these were far from her usual ones. They were perfectly-sculpted replicas of people, young and old, male and female. Intrigued, Elsa drew closer to them, but when she approached, she realized in horror that these were no statues. These were actual _people_ , frozen solid. She looked at her hands, wondering if she had been the cause of their deaths, when inexplicably, the ones nearest her began to move, the ice surrounding them creaking and cracking as they turned vacant, unseeing, soulless eyes towards her.

"Murderer," they began to whisper.

"No!" Elsa protested, backing away.

"Murderer," they repeated, this time louder and more forcefully, as more of them stood and started advancing on her. As more and more of the frozen came into view, Elsa realized they were wearing State uniforms, and that the indeterminate clearing she had been in had morphed into the field at the Battle of Arendelle.

"No!" Elsa insisted again. "There was a war, and I was protecting my Anna and my unborn child. You were coming to kill them both!"

"Don't you think _we_ had families, Murderer?" the frozen corpse nearest her asked. "Are you so naïve as to think that _you_ are the only person who loves someone? That _we_ weren't fighting for the people _we_ loved?" When Elsa didn't reply, the corpse's gaze turned even more hateful. "MURDERER!" it repeated.

"Murderer!" the others echoed, their voices now a roar.

"No," Elsa repeated, her voice growing weak as she curled into a ball, collapsing on the ground as her victims advanced.

AAAAAAAAA

"Mommy? What's wrong with Mama?" asked an anxious young voice, and Anna, on her way to comfort Elsa, stopped and turned to find eight-year old Ari, with seven-year old Ellie and six-year old Arntine in tow, looking at her and Elsa worriedly.

Considering the blizzard that had inundated the living room, Anna wasn't surprised that her girls had been roused from their beds, but she had been hoping to calm Elsa down before she had to answer any questions. Her very smart and perceptive offspring were too quick, though, so Anna sighed and knelt, holding out her arms and beckoning them into a warm hug. When they were snuggled against her, Anna tried her best to explain. "You know how Mommy and Mama had to fight to be free, right?" she asked, and all of the girls nodded. "Well, while we were fighting, an army came to hurt me. Your mama wanted to protect me, actually _us_ , because Ari was about to be born. So, she used her powers to stop the army from getting to me or Arendelle, but when she did, she hurt some of the people in the army with her powers. She didn't mean to hurt people, so it makes her sad that she did, and this sadness gives her bad dreams. She hasn't had one of these bad dreams in a while, but she is having one tonight, and her powers are responding like yours do when you are sad or angry," Anna explained.

The girls nodded in understanding, all of them already having had tantrums that resulted in Extraordinary powers running amok. "Then how can we help her, Mommy?" Arntine asked earnestly. "How can we make her not sad?"

"Well, Teeny, we just have to gently wake her up and let her know she is loved," Anna answered. "That has always worked when she's had these bad dreams in the past."

Upon hearing that, all three girls immediately pulled away from Anna and marched towards their Mama, completely unperturbed by the ice and snow swirling around Elsa. Anna marveled just a bit at their complete lack of fear; true, _she_ wasn't afraid of Elsa and never would be, but this was a display of raw power that the girls had never seen before. It was the type of display that made even powerful Extraordinaries fearful. It didn't seem to matter a bit to Ari, Ellie and Teeny, though; they simply waded through the snow or turned it away with their own powers, and before long, they had surrounded Elsa and put their arms around her.

"What do we do, Ari?" Ellie asked, deferring to her older sister.

"I think we should sing," Ari decided. "Mama always loves it when we sing."

"Can we sing the snowman song?" Teeny asked excitedly. "Maybe we can go build one if we sing the song to Mama and she wakes up."

"Teeny, it's the middle of the night," Ellie pointed out with just a hint of exasperation. "It's dark outside and stuff."

"So?" Teeny challenged with a shrug. "I _always_ like building snowmen," she said with juvenile defiance.

"We'll sing the snowman song, but we'll have to see what Mama and Mommy say about building one," Ari declared, putting an end to the conversation so they could refocus on helping their Mama.

"I'll start!" Arntine said eagerly, taking a breath and letting her beautiful Siren's voice wash over all of them.

AAAAAAAA

Elsa huddled on the ground, feeling the cold bodies of the people she had killed growing ever closer. The chant of "murderer" grew deafening, and she put her hands over her ears to block it out, only to stop when another voice rose above all of the others. It was a child's voice raised in song, and it was a voice that she recognized instantly. "Teeny," Elsa whispered, her hope returning with the sound of her little Siren's voice. Elsa continued to listen, and when she could hear better, she realized that Teeny was singing one of her favorite songs, the old song about building a snowman that had been in the family for so long that no one remembered where it had originally come from.

After the first verse, Ari's melodic voice and Ellie's off-key warble joined in for the second, and Elsa was suddenly aware that the frozen corpses were gone, and she was surrounded by warmth. Her fear started to recede, but it wasn't letting go completely, so Elsa remained frozen on the ground. After the second verse ended, though, even more warmth enveloped her from the back, and phantom arms slipped around her waist. Lips that she would recognize anywhere bent close to her ear, softly singing the final verse with lyrics that had been altered to comfort her. "Elsa?" Anna sang. "I know you're in there. The kids are asking where you've been. Have courage; I know you're trying to; we're right here for you; just let us in. We _always_ have each other; it's all five of us, and all of us all love you. Do you want to build a snowman…?" Anna trailed off, leaving the question hanging.

Elsa's eyes snapped open, her fear fleeing in the onslaught of love that her family had surrounded her with, and she took in the sight of being wrapped up in the arms of her four greatest loves. "Yes, I do," Elsa sang back, causing all of them to look up at her. She smiled back at all of them with unabashed love, and their hugs got even tighter. They stayed contentedly like that for a few minutes until Arntine grew restless.

"Were you just finishing the song, or did you mean it, Mama?" Teeny asked. "Can we build a snowman? Right now?"

Elsa looked at Anna. She wanted to say yes; the dream was still troubling her, and no remedy sounded better than having a little fun with her family. But, the responsible parent in her told her that the girls had school the next day and it was the middle of the night. Luckily, Anna could read her thoughts and was by far the more impulsive parent, so the redhead made the obvious choice. "She said yes, didn't she, Teeny?" Anna pointed out, and Arntine nodded excitedly. "Then that means we all go build a snowman," Anna decided. "But you need to get your cold weather stuff on, and you other two need to at least get some shoes on. Mama and I will wait for you." All three of the girls gave their mothers another quick hug before clambering off the floor and scampering up the stairs to their bedrooms.

After they had left, Anna tightened her arms around Elsa, kissing the side of her wife's neck gently. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, love," she said tenderly. "You haven't had one of those bad dreams in such a long time. Do you have any idea why you had one tonight?"

Elsa put her hands over Anna's hands, caressing them gently as she gave herself time to think. "I don't really know," she admitted after a while. "The move, maybe?" she hypothesized. "I've never been very good with change."

Anna sighed and shifted herself so she was now draped in Elsa's lap, rather than along her back. "I knew I should never have run," she lamented.

"Of course you should have," Elsa disagreed instantly. "You were by far the best candidate."

"And you are not an impartial observer," Anna retorted wryly.

"Absolutely not," Elsa agreed with a smirk.

Anna smiled back before her face sobered. "But if I hadn't run for President of the Republic, then I wouldn't have won, and we wouldn't be moving to the Capitol. And I wouldn't have caused you to be in pain," she said wistfully

"It's just a hypothesis, Anna," Elsa countered. "Yes, the dreams have become rarer and rarer, but there's never been a rhyme or reason to their appearance. There's isn't any way to say for sure the move is what is causing them."

"I know, but it worries me so much when you go back there and you hurt so much," Anna whispered.

"I know, I know, Apprentice," Elsa whispered back, hugging her wife tightly. "Just like I hate worrying you and the girls so much. But, we have always been stronger together, and we can work through this. Hopefully, it was just a random thing. If not, then I'll get some more help. I'm not going to let you give up on your dream or let the country down by holding you back."

"You will never hold me back," Anna said sternly, kissing Elsa thoroughly to make her point. Elsa smiled and kissed back until the girls came trooping back into the room. Breaking apart at the sound of footsteps, they got off the floor. Anna went to get her own coat while Elsa and the girls got a head start outside.

Even though there were three people in the family that could make a snowman with a wave of their hands, Anna and Arntine insisted that they had to make one the old-fashioned way, and so, all Elsa, Ari or Ellie were allowed to make was simple snow. They rolled, formed and shaped him until he was perfect, and when they were done, they stood back to admire their handiwork. A glance at the lightening eastern horizon told that dawn was approaching, so Elsa, knowing that no one was going back to bed, offered to make pancakes. Delighted by the rare treat on a weekday, the girls yelled their approval and went inside. After a quick kiss, their mothers followed them, looking hopefully forward to the brand new day.


End file.
